1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information terminal, and more particularly to an apparatus and a method for managing content data in an information terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, information terminals include not only mobile communication terminals, such as a PDA (Personal Data Assistant) and a smart phone, but also desk-top PCs (personal computers), and are also called “information processing terminals”. According to the conventional content data management method for providing applications with content data required by the respective applications in such an information terminal, each application directly manages content data information generated by itself. That is, an application itself accesses a data storage unit to obtain information required by the application.
Herein, the “content data” means data utilized according to the user's intention by means of a relevant application according to the user's selection. Also, the “data storage unit” means a storage unit for storing new data generated from a data generation unit such as a camera. Such a data storage unit stores data (“content data”) that can be used by applications in each data generation unit, and content data information, that contains the memory address for the content data (or a data generation unit), a type of data format, etc.
Therefore, in order for applications of a mobile communication terminal to read the requisite content data from memory, each application first obtains content data information indicating storage location and the like from a relevant data storage unit and then must search for necessary content data according to the obtained content data information. In general, conventional applications use different structures and formats, and independently make and use each content data information according to necessity.
Therefore, as the number of applications increases and/or as the methods of accessing data of these applications become more varied, content data management methods of providing content data to the applications become incompatible. Consequently, the internal construction of information terminals providing content data becomes more and more complicated, so that too much time is wasted in developing an information terminal and applications applicable to the information terminal.